About The Club

(Draft 30 Nov 01)

Community Wireless Networking Club
for Luton and Dunstable Area

(Part of the Consume Project)

1. Name
The club shall be known as the:-Luton and Dunstable (L&D) Community Network Club

2. Aims
The aims of the club shall be to:

  • Establish a high speed broadband (11Mbps) computer wireless local area network that is available to every home, amateur and voluntary organisation in the area.
  • Co-ordinate locally produced material (e.g. radio, television, interactive games, etc.) that will be made available to all members.
  • Provide services for local inter-personal, inter-club and inter-organisational communication (e.g. news, e-mail, web pages, chat, telephone, video-conferencing, etc.) for all members.
  • Provide one or more gateways for high speed access to the Internet
  • Support other Consume Clubs, particularly those nearby.

    3. Membership
    Membership shall be open to all households, amateur and voluntary organisations in the L&D area regardless of age, sex, religion, nationality, etc.

    Membership Condition: Because the network is a co-operative one, members who require access to the network HAVE to sign the Terms and Conditions agreement.

    Membership can be in the following Categories:
    Consume Members. Consume members have Full Member status and may use Consume networking facilities throughout the country (extendible to other countries and the entire world in time).

    Guest Members. Guest Members are those Guests, Visitors, or Trial users that Contributing members allow to access the network through their node. Guest members are the responsibility of the Contributing Member (who should ensure that the Guest conforms with network protocols (which are to be defined).

    Speculative Members. Speculative members are those who express an interest in joining the club but have not signed the Terms and Conditions Agreement and do not have or provide a network node. The "Location" and status of Speculative members is important to the club (for network bridging reasons).

    Other Consume Members. who are members of Consume in other areas (of the country) have full rights to access to all facilities of the L&D community network and provide reciprocal facilities.

    Excluded from Club Membership are: Commercial businesses and any other profit making organisations. This is a condition imposed by the Government Radiocommunications Agency (RA) for licence-exempt wireless broadcasting.

    4. Subscriptions
    There are plans to introduce annual subscriptions but the rates have yet to be determined.

    5. Financial
    The club plans to invest in network infrastructure and to this end may seek funds from subscriptions, fund raising activities and applications to suitable funding bodies.
    Initially much network infrastructure will be owned by the members individually or in groups (e.g. neighbours, local clubs, voluntary organisations).

    6. Membership of the Committee
    The Committee shall consist of: (a) A Chair, (b) A Secretary, (c) A Treasurer (d) A Public Relations Officer and (e) Ordinary Committee Members.

    7. Meetings and Communications
    There will be an annual AGM. Other meetings will be held online (video-conferencing). Online communications (e.g. e-mail) will be used.

    For Further Details Local Contact is: Paul Clarke
    Tel: 01582 508616
    E-mail: wlan@freeuk.com

    30 Nov 01